Help me make a PC?

[Th3Exiled]

Windows 7 64bit

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

CPU

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

Motherboard

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

GPU

Newegg.com - XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

RAM

2x
Newegg.com - Patriot Gamer 2 Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PG34G1600EL

Case

Nice cheap one.
Newegg.com - Rosewill CHALLENGER-U3 Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, front mounted dual USB 3.0

PSU

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Professional Series HX650 (CMPSU-650HX) 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Optical Drive

Newegg.com - PLEXTOR DVD Super Multi drive 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black PATA (E-IDE) Model PX-L871A LightScribe Support - CD / DVD Burners

Hard drive

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SSD

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064D/AM 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Desktop Upgrade Kit

Final cost is ~$1,127. For improved performance you can chuck in another 6870 down the line. Install Windows and ARMA II on the SSD. This should provide great performance in ARMA II running at 1440x900 as well as your other games. If you want to reduce costs you could look into a cheaper PSU as the one I listed has a bit of a premium on it since it is modular (you can remove the cables you don't need), you could also remove the SSD however personally I'd keep it. The CPU is fully unlocked and ready to overclock, however I haven't added an aftermarket cooler to the build; I personally recommend the Corsair H70. If you do not ever want to overclock you can get the cheaper non 'K' version of the processor and save a little money.
The motherboard I have listed is a little more expensive than I normally suggest. To be honest, I didn't put too much effort in as when ever I list one someone claims something bad about it and never bothers to post a source. It supports dual graphic cards, if that doesn't interest you, you can save a couple of dollars and get a cheaper motherboard without it.
Either way, this is a starting point. Let's see where this goes.

Exiled.

[the_epic_pooh]

Fine... how about $1,000.

Will I still be able to play those games listed on High w/ 0 lag?

[Th3Exiled]

Originally Posted by the_epic_pooh

Fine... how about $1,000.

Will I still be able to play those games listed on High w/ 0 lag?

Yes, you could cheap out on some components and still have pretty much the same in-game performance, however, the trade-off would be future upgradability; a performance hit to multitasking, desktop experience and loading times; and/or case airflow, aesthetics and cable management.
Three areas where we could cut down in costs is:

PSU

As I said above, I've selected a modular PSU. This is considered a premium part and carries a higher price over non-modular designs. You could save some money by switching to another model such as corsair's tx650. Corsair's products also tend to be a little more expensive so you may consider switching to another brand. The current model is a 650W PSU; This is perfect for dual 6870s. If you do not plan to ever upgrade to a dual card setup you can choose a cheaper 500W model instead.

Keep in mind, try not to be too cheap when choosing a PSU. While it does not directly affect performance of games, it is what is powering those components that are; if you've selected a PSU that is of inferior quality, you may end up with decreased performance, extra heat and potentially damaging or destroying your other components. The quality of your PSU also has a big impact on overclocking as factors such as good voltage regulation (not much voltage variance at different load levels) will allow you to set a lower voltage to achieve the same overclock and thus less heat.

Motherboard

Again, you may be able to find cheaper models. From memory this board has USB 3.0 (internal & external), Sata 3 and two PCI-e 3.0 lanes. Cheaper models usually means less features. If you do not plan to have a second graphics card you will not require the second PCI-e lane. Some boards offer better overclocking and more overclocking features than others, however you do not need anything too fancy for this. Most people will only need the very basic options.
Look out for reviews for any particular boards. You do not need to read the whole thing, simply reading the conclusion will generally give you a good enough idea if there's any issues with the board.


SSD

Again a premium product, and the easiest place to save some money from. It has benefit in mostly multitasking, desktop experience and loading times. If you don't maintain your PC very well you'll probably see massive benefit to this as well, since you'll probably have several different background programs and services running which will be accessing your hard drive/s from time to time; This would be a nightmare on a single mechanical hard drive, however the addition of a SSD will amend this depending on it's implementation.
If you install ARMA II on the SSD it will also have gains. While it doesn't exactly have a constant fps improvement it alleviates certain situations of stuttering and lod thrashing.

While personally I wouldn't go without one myself nowadays (as it greatly improves my desktop experience which is where I spend the majority of my time), you can save a good fair deal of money if you drop it from the build.



Two other areas that you could save money would be RAM & GPU. While I'm not suggesting getting a weaker graphics card, you might be able to find better deals; different models or even the exact model I've listed depending on which company the board has been branded under.

Personally I wouldn't recommend it, but you could drop down to 4GiB of ram. This shouldn't make much difference in the short term and it's easily enough expanded upon in the future. Though you'd have to ask is saving ~$21 that important.

Exiled.

[the_epic_pooh]

Thing is... I am not good with making PC's physically. I am not good wireing at all.

[Th3Exiled]

Originally Posted by the_epic_pooh

Thing is... I am not good with making PC's physically. I am not good wireing at all.

Only one way to improve at anything. None of us simply started out being good at this stuff.

As for wiring, all you do is plug the cables into each other, simples

Exiled.

[[R-COM]rushn]

Originally Posted by the_epic_pooh

Thing is... I am not good with making PC's physically. I am not good wireing at all.

Maximum PC | Build It: A First-Class Gaming & Media PC for the Living Room - Page 1

really simple like legos

[the_epic_pooh]

Guys'...

you are making me cry of emotional pain. I am proud of you all...

You wanna know what you will be getting now????


Free Air!


But I am very confused by Mobo stuff.

[Th3Exiled]

What exactly about the motherboard confuses you? How to choose one?

Well it's simple enough. Search for something along the lines of "1155 Motherboard" in newegg. 1155 is the number of pins in the H2 socket which sandy bridge and Ivy Bridge use.


A close-up picture of an LGA 1155 (H2) socket on a motherboard.

From that list find motherboards that contain "p67" or "z68" in their names; these are known as chipsets. Chipsets basically tell you several features and functions that the board will have. Both of the above chipsets allow overclocking. The z68 has all the functions of the p67 and a couple of extra; you probably won't use these anyway. z68 boards will be slightly more expensive than their p67 counterparts.
Put all the z68 and p67 boards that are within your budget in a separate browser window. Once you have enough, look through their general features. Eliminate whichever do not have the features you are looking for such as multiple PCI-e slots if you plan to have multiple graphics cards, SATA 3 (6Gb/s not 3Gb/s) and/or USB 3.0 etc.
When you only have motherboards that offer all the features you want, take a look at the newegg review section and proper full blown reviews on review sites (you only need to read the conclusion if you want to), do this starting at the least expensive board; this step is quality control, you are looking for issues.
Remember, people are much more likely to post a review on newegg if they are unsatisfied; if a product has a high volume out and yet only a few reviews, if the majority of them are negative, this doesn't mean you are likely to encounter this issue (further research this issue).

Take the cheapest board that has all the features that you want and passes your quality control check.

Exiled.

[[R-COM]rushn]

Originally Posted by the_epic_pooh

Guys'...

you are making me cry of emotional pain. I am proud of you all...

You wanna know what you will be getting now????


Free Air!


But I am very confused by Mobo stuff.

nothing confusing about motherboards they tell you what they take in

[Q2M100]

Originally Posted by Th3Exiled

Windows 7 64bit

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

CPU

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

Motherboard

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

GPU

Newegg.com - XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

RAM

2x
Newegg.com - Patriot Gamer 2 Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PG34G1600EL

Case

Nice cheap one.
Newegg.com - Rosewill CHALLENGER-U3 Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, front mounted dual USB 3.0

PSU

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Professional Series HX650 (CMPSU-650HX) 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Optical Drive

Newegg.com - PLEXTOR DVD Super Multi drive 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black PATA (E-IDE) Model PX-L871A LightScribe Support - CD / DVD Burners

Hard drive

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SSD

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064D/AM 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Desktop Upgrade Kit

Final cost is ~$1,127. For improved performance you can chuck in another 6870 down the line. Install Windows and ARMA II on the SSD. This should provide great performance in ARMA II running at 1440x900 as well as your other games. If you want to reduce costs you could look into a cheaper PSU as the one I listed has a bit of a premium on it since it is modular (you can remove the cables you don't need), you could also remove the SSD however personally I'd keep it. The CPU is fully unlocked and ready to overclock, however I haven't added an aftermarket cooler to the build; I personally recommend the Corsair H70. If you do not ever want to overclock you can get the cheaper non 'K' version of the processor and save a little money.
The motherboard I have listed is a little more expensive than I normally suggest. To be honest, I didn't put too much effort in as when ever I list one someone claims something bad about it and never bothers to post a source. It supports dual graphic cards, if that doesn't interest you, you can save a couple of dollars and get a cheaper motherboard without it.
Either way, this is a starting point. Let's see where this goes.

Exiled.

:
This is a pretty good setup, but a few things don't follow good PC building guidelines (save money/future proof).

1. Motherboard: Nothing special about it and you can save $35 going with this nearly identical one. - Newegg.com - ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

2. GPU: Again, $20 more for the same thing (I can vouch for Sapphire as a good brand since I have one). - Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

3. RAM: You recommend one than can be easily replaced with a better alternative of equal price. - Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM

4. Case: This was by far the worst mistake. For the same price as that "Nice cheap one", you can get superior quality cases. Anyways, as a rule of thumb, invest in a nice case, as you can use it again on your next build (utilize the $67 I saved for this). Unlike computer parts, cases don't become outdated.
- $40 - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case
- $50 - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
- $75 - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
- $80 (used to be $120 BEST DEAL) - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

5. CD/DVD Drive: I see no difference but $12 - Newegg.com - ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - CD / DVD Burners

Otherwise it is a goo build. I also strongly agree with cutting the SSD if you need to cut costs, as it is a premium product and the prices have been dropping fairly consistently in the past year.